Machine for cutting ribbons from bias or straight-woven textile fabric, leather, rubber, or other similar materials



1929' s. A. BRANDON ,734,4

MACHINE FOR CUTTING masons mom BIAS OR STRAIGHT WOVEN TEXTILE FABRIC,LEATHER, RUBBER, OR OTHER SIMILAR MATERIALS Filed July'22, 1926 3Sheets-Sheet 1 Nov. 5, 1929. s. A. BRANDON 1,734,848

MACHINE FOR CUTTING RI'BBONS FROM BIAS OR STRAIGHT WOVEN TEXTILE FABRIC,LEATHER, RUBBER,

OR OTHER SIMILAR MATERIALS Filed July 222, 1926 5 Sheets-Sheet 2 Nbv. 5,1929.

MACHINE FOR CUT WOVEN TEXTILE FABRI LEATHER,

OR OTHER SIMILAR TERIA Filed July 22, I 26' -S. A. TING RI BRANDON BBFROM BIAS OR RUBBE L5 3 Sheets-Shget 5 Patented Nov. 5, 1929 STEPHENANDRE BRANDON, or nnnsnAY-s' n-sAn'rnn, ,ERANGE LEATHER, RUBBER, OROTHER SIMILAR MATERIALS Application filed July 22, 1926, Serial No.124,275, and in has, December 29, 1925.

The present invention relates to improvements in machines for cuttingribbons, whether of fabric, leather, rubber or other similar materials,which machines are most generally 5 used in the manufacture ofbias-textile ribbons. It is often necessary that the bias-portions offabric used in dressmaking, millinery and the like shall have a certainlength, but when these biases are cut by hand in the piece of fabric, itis evident that their length cannot be greater than that of the biastaken from one selvedge to the'other of the fabric and this length, ofcourse, may vary according to the width of the fabric. In order toobtain bias-pieces of a relatively considerable length it is necessaryto sew a certain number of bias-pieces to eachother; but this operationis time-consuming and expensive, so that, with a View to expediting thework and as reducing the cost thereof,'it has been proposed to cut, outof the fabric, strips bounded on the f one hand, by the selvedges ofthefabric and on the other hand by two parallel inclined or biased cutswhich are spaced apart about one meter and to unite, by a seam, the twosel vedges of the piece of fabric cut in this way. A tubular piece offabric is thus obtained the basic circumferences .of which are biased.The cutting of the bias piece is effected along b0 one of these bases,one of the edges of the along a spiral so as to enable a bias-ribbon tobe obtained, which is continuous from one end to the other of thetubular piece of fabric see French Patent No. 564,008 of March 17,1923,). It would be difficult and troublesome to effect this cuttingoperation by hand, so that a machine has been designed and constructed,which can be driven-either mechanically or'by hand, and which eflectsthis cutting operation by means of a rotary knife, the fabric beingguided by the operator himself so as to present it to the knife.Machines of this kind comprise, apart from the rotary knife which isdriven by the actuating mechanism of the machine, two feed-rolls uponwhich is mount- 9 ed the tubular piece of fabric which is to be MAoHmnnon CUTTING mesons FROM BIAS on STRAIGHT-WOVEN TEXTILE nABRrc,

cut, one of said rolls being cylindrical, the other is conical so as topermit of the entrainment of-the fabric towards the knife, these tworolls beingrotated in the same direction but in the opposite directiontothe knife. A guide is arrangedlin front of the knife'and carries barswhich are parallel to each other and between which the edge of thefabric is slid with .an undulating movement so that it is held in asuitable manner against the guide. A spool is mounted in the rear of therotary knife and is driven by a transmis-I sion mechanism from thedriving gear of the machine, whereby it is possible to wind upthe ribbonas it is cut. I a Y It is evident that this machinegives.aconsiderabledegree of eificiency, but the guiding means with whichit'i's provided are not sufie cient toensure a uniform entrainment and auniform cutof the fabric. In addition the constant presence of anattendant is necessary in order that he may, frequently rectify theposition of, the edge :of the fabric to be cut! and prevent the fabricitself fromnsliding longitudinally upon the feeder-rolls, either toorapidly or too slowly Ifythe speed oflen-- trainment is too great,pleats willbe formed on the edge of the fabric near the knife and theguide, whereas if the feed is too slowthefv edge of the fabric does notcomesatisfactorily into contact with the guide, and the .cut in eithercase presents irregularities.

The present invention relates to improveform cut, to enable tubularfabric of relative- 1y large width to be out upon a machine of smallcapacity, and to enable the "cut strip to be turned in, especially inthe case ofbi-asstrips, depending upon the form in which the strips areemployed in the millinery, dressmaking and clothing industries, as theyare, cutand before they are rolled up.

V the guide and from the knife, so that this tubular fabric shall have atendency to advance longitudinally upon the feed rolls towards theguide.

According to one embodiment of the invention, these means comprise adeflecting rod mounted beneath the table of the machine and capable ofoscillating horizontally so as to 'push back to a greater or less extentthe portion of material-held by the front feed roll towards the portionof material held by the rear feed roll, the action of this deflectingrod diminishing in intensitytowards the knife.

The invent on also consists in combining, with this deflecting rod, asecond deflecting rod arranged almost parallel with the former, andmounted upon a bar which can knife.

pivot thereabout so that, when the portion of material is insertedbetween the two deflecting rods, a more efficacious. actionnpon thefabric is obtained by the rotation of the bar around the first rod, thebar itself constituting a preliminary lateral guide member for the edgeof the fabric before it reaches the guide arranged in front of theknife.

The invention also consists inproviding a supplementary deflecting-rod,shorter in length than the other deflecting-rods, so as to enable it toexert its action upon the end of the tubular piece when this lattercomesinto proximity with the guideand'the knife.

The invention also consists in arranging two deflecting-r0dsfparallelone to the other andenabling their longitudinal movement to be effectedby the operation of a wheel so that once the material is insertedbetween them, they feed the. said material in a uniform manner towardsthe guide and the .The invention also consists in mounting thedeflecting-rods in such a manner that they are; fixed and parallel toeach other, and to the plane of thefabric, a bar being arranged betweenthem either parallel or obliquely, the said bar being able to move mehorizontal plane perpendicularly to the edge of the fabric.

The invention furthermore consists in mounting at the front of themachine an arm oscillating freely around a vertical shaft and bent atits free end so that it can be introduced between the fabric and thefolded-back extremity of this latter, thisv arm serving to unfold theextremity of the fabric inaccordance with its advancing movement uponthe machine.

In the drawing Fig. 1 is a front elevation ofa machine forcutting'ribbons of any material (biased or ordinary fabric, leather,rubber and the lik embodying the improvements forming the subject of thepresent invention.

Fig. 2 is a corresponding plan view.

Fig. 3 is a side view.

Fig. 4 is a section along line IVIV of Fig. 2.

Figs. 5 and 6 represent diagrammatically the method of action of thedeflectingrods.

Fig. 7 shows diagrammatically the method of action of the unpleatingarm.

Figs. 8 and 9 show a modified form of construction of thedeflecting-rods. 7

Figs. 10 and 11 show another modified form of the deflecting-rods.

Referring to the drawings:

The machine comprises a table 1 mounted upon a frame 2, said tablecarrying the various mechanisms necessary for actuating the machine andfor the feeding, guiding, and

cuttingof the fabric. The rear feed-roll 6,

is keyed upon the shaft 3 of the pulley 4 which ismounted in suitablebearings 5.. This feedroll 6 is of conical form and its movement istransmitted to the front feed-roll 7 by means of pulleys 8 and 9 and ofthe belt 10. The frame F is provided with a slot S to enable the tubularfabric to be threadedly engaged from the left of the machine over therolls 6 and 7 and between the rolls 15 and 16. The slot S issubstantially level with the top of the feed roll 6.

The tubular piece of fabric to be cut is mounted upon these feed-rolls 6and 7. V

The rotary knife 11 is mounted upon a shaft 12 which is driven fromshaft 8 through the intermediary of toothed Wheels 13 and 141, saidshaft being provided with a rubber cylinder 15-which bears against acylinder 16 of the same material mounted upon the rear feed-roll 6.Cylindrical rods 17 and 18 rotating freely upon their axes are arrangedrespectively in the rear of the front roll 7 and in front of the rearroll 6, so as to facilitate the sliding movement of the material uponthese rolls andassist in its transversal movement. The gulding of theedge of the fabric towards the knife is effected by a vertical blade 19carrying small bars 20 and 33 by which the edge of the fabric is engagedalternately in such a manner as to ensure efficient guiding of the edgeof the fabric into contact with the guide. The periphery of the bar 20,which lies nearest to the rotary knife 11, may, as shown in Figure 2, beroughened in order to prevent the fabric, as it passes over said bar,from becoming displaced longi- A take-up spool for the bias-strip offab-' ric is arranged in the rear of the knife 11. This spool 141 ispressed by a spring 45' upon a rubber cylinder 46 which serves to driveit, and which itself is driven from the shaft 3 by a belt transmission47. The drawbacks inherent to the machine so far described will beevident from this brief description. The fabric is engaged by the twofeed-rolls 5 and 7', the first of which is tapered so as to'assist infeeding it longitudinally towards the knife and it therefore advances inan irregular manner in this direction and overlaps the guide 19 or movestoo far away therefrom so that the operator isobliged to constantlybring back the edge of the fabric to maintain it just in contact withthe guide. Furthermore, when the machine receives a tubular pieceof'fabri'c of width superior to the length of the machine, the extremityof the fabric is folded upon itself, and it is necessary to remove thispleat by handwhen it approaches the knife. 7

Furthermore, the edge of the fabric during its transverse movementtowards the knife is drawn too forcibly towards the guide, with theresult that it does not al ways pass along this latter as accurately asis desirable.

Finally, the insertion oft-he edge of the fabric alternately above andbelow the bars 20 and 33 of the guide 19 is somewhat difficult.

The improvements now to be described have been devised to obviate. thesevarious drawbacks.

With a view to ensuring a uniform longitudinal feed of the fabrictowards the knife, a deflecting rod 22 is mounted upon a vertical shaft21 fixed to the table 1 of the machine, which deflecting rod 22canoscillate horizontally. Furthermore, abar 23 is fixed upon thisdeflecting rod 22 in an adjustable manner and a supplementarydeflecting-rod- 25 is held in this bar 23 by means of a nut 24, thedeflecting bar 25 being arranged almost parallel to the deflecting rod22 and beingmounted in such a manner-that it can oscillate about thesaid deflecting rod 22 by the rotation of the bar 23. An adjustablesupport 26 is mounted upon the shaft 21 and carries a deflecting-rod 27which is shorter than the deflecting-rod already mentioned.

Assuming the tubular fabric is engaged in the machine as described aboveand the various rolls rotate, if the roll '6 is conical, as shown, therod, if parallel to the axis thereof, will increase the natural tendencyof the tubular fabric to ride up the portion of largest diameter of theroll. The same effect occurs in belt transmissions, where the pulleysare always barrel shaped. the rod is angularly arranged wlth respect tothe longitudinal direction of the tubular fabric, it will obviouslydeflect the whole of the fabric longitudinally (as if it were an endlessbelt hanging from a rotating transmission drum) and cause it to movetoward the ment of the tubular fabric.

this being to force the fabric to move to-:

wards the guide 19. The advancing movement of the fabric in thelongitudinal direction can be varied by setting this bar 23 at a greateror lesser angle relative to'the axis oftherolls 6 and 7. It would alsobe possible to exert a certain tension upon the? tubular fabric with aview to rendering the advanclng movement of the fabric more regular,care being taken to pass the mate rialbetween the rods 22 and 25 and'bycausing the latter rod to oscillate to a greater or less extent aboutthe deflecting rod 22 as indicated in Fig. 6. The rod 27 plays the samepart as the deflecting rod 22 as re-- gards the fabric, but only when itis ad vanced to a sufficient extent to be out of the range of action ofthe said deflecting rod 22.

The deflecting rods can evidently be arranged in a different mannertothat shown: and described, while at the same time assisting in thelongitudinal feeding or entrain- For example, the deflectingrods 22- 25instead of oscillating aboutthe vertical axis 21 could move.longitudinally so as to ensure the longitudinal entrainment of "thefabric once the latter has been inserted between them.

In this case, as can be seen from 8,

the two deflecting rods 22 and'25 would be and mounted-upon across-piece 51 which in turn I 1 would be mounted to oscillate about theextremity of a rod '52 of angular'cross-section and screw-threaded atits end,-this rod being capable of longitudinal movement in its support54 of corresponding cross-section, without rotating upon itself, underthe. action of a hand-wheel 53 which. is held in position upon thesupport 54. By suitably inclin-' would be exerted by a bar 55 arrangedeither parallel or obliquely relative to the rods 22 and 25 and capableof moving in a horizontal plane so as to push back the fabric28 as shownin Fig. 11.

In order to place tubular pieces of fabric of large width in workingposition upon this machine without increasing its overall dimensions,there is provided an arm 29 which can oscillate upon an axis 30 carriedby the table 1, this arm being bent as shown at 31 in Fig. 2. When thewidth of the tubular fabric 28 being operated upon is greater than thelength of the feed-rolls 6 and 7, the extremity of the tubular pieceremote from the cutting line is folded upon itself and the inclinedextremity 31 of the arm 29 (see Fig. 7) is introduced between thetubular piece 28 and the fold 32.

As the tubular piece advances longitudinal ly towards the guide, thebent portion 31 of the arm 29 pushes back the fold and deforms it, theaction of the arm 29 being greatly facilitated by the freedom of itsoscillation 7 about its axis 30.

I claim: Y

1. A machine for cutting bias pieces from a tubular fabric, comprisingfront and rear feed rolls for threadedly receiving the fabric, a knifefor cutting said bias pieces from the advancing edge thereof, a guidefor the fabric, a rod pivoted at one end and arranged to engage and urgethe material passing over the front feed roll towards the materialpassing over the rear feed roll'and to deflect the material toward saidguide.

2. A machine for cutting bias pieces from a tubular fabric comprisingfront and rear feed rolls for threadedly receiving the fabric, a knifefor cutting said bias pieces from the advancing edge thereof, a guidefor the fab-,

ric, a rodpivoted at one end and arranged to engage and urge thematerial passing over the front feed roll towards the material passingover the rear feed roll to deflect it toward said guide, and a secondrod between which and the first-mentioned rod the material can beinserted.

e 3. A machine for cutting bias pieces from a tubular fabric, comprisingfront and rear feed rolls for threadedly receiving the fabric, a knifefor cutting said bias pieces from the advancing edge thereof, a guidefor the fabric, a rod pivoted at one end and arranged to engage and urgethe material passing over the front feed roll towards the materialpassing over the rear feed roll to deflect it toward said guide, and asecond rod between which and the first-mentioned rod the material can beinserted, said second rodbeing pivotally mounted relative to said firstrod.

4. A machine for cutting bias pieces from a tubular fabric, comprisingfront and rear feed rolls for threadedly receiving the fabric, a knifefor cutting said bias-pieces from the advancing edge thereof, a guidefor the fabric, a rod pivoted at one end and arranged to engage and urgethe material passing over the front feed roll towards the materialpassing over the rear feed roll to deflect it toward said guide, and asecond rod cooperating with said first rod, said rods belng adj ustableto insure uniform motion of the ma-- terial towards the guide and theknife.

5. A machine for cutting bias pieces from a tubular fabric, comprisingfront and rear feed rolls for threadedly receiving the fabric, a knifefor cutting said bias pieces from the advancing edge thereof, a guidefor the fabric, a rod pivoted at one end and arranged to engage and urgethe material passing over the front feed roll towards the materialpassing over the rear feed roll to deflect ittoward said guide, a secondrod cooperating with said first rod, said rods being adjuste able toinsure uniform motion of the material towards the guide and the knife,and a bar arranged between said rods for pushing back the fabric. I 7

6. A machine for cutting bias pieces from a tubular fabric, comprisingfront and rear feed rolls for threadedly receivingthe fabric, a knifefor cutting said bias-pieces from the advancing edge thereof,-a guidefor the fabric, a rod pivoted at one end and arranged to engage and urgethe material passing over the front feed roll towards the materialpassing over the rear feed roll to deflect it toward said guide, asecond rod cooperating with said first rod, said rods being adjustableto insure uniform motion of the material towards the guide and theknife, and a bar arranged between said rods and parallel thereto forpushing back the fabric.

7. A machine for cutting bias pieces from a tubular fabric, comprisingfront and rear feed rolls for threadedly receiving the fabric, a knifefor cutting said bias pieces from the advancing edge thereof, a guidefor the fabric, a rod pivoted at one end and'arranged to engage and urgethe material passing over the front feed roll towards the material passing over the rear feed roll to deflect it to ward said guide, a secondrod cooperating with said first rod, said rods being adjustable toensure uniform motion of the material towards the guideand the knife,and a bar arranged between said rods and at an angle thereto for pushingback the fabric.

8. A machine for cutting bias pieces from tubular fabrics, comprisingfront and rear feed rolls for threadedly receiving the fabric, aknife'for cutting said bias pieces from the advancing edge thereof, aguide for the fabric, two rods arranged parallel to each other and eachpivoted at one end and arranged to engage and urge the material passingover the front feed roll toward the fabric llO fabric, a rod pivoted atone end and arranged to engage and urge the material passing over thefront feed roll towards the material passing over the rear feed roll todeflect it toward said guide, a second rod cooperating with said firstrod, and means for setting said second rod at a greater or smaller anglerelative to the axes of the feed rolls.

10. A machine for cutting bias pieces from tubular fabrics, comprisingfront and rear feed rolls for threadedly receiving the fabric, a knifefor cutting said bias pieces from the advancing edge thereof, a guidefor the fabric, and two rods arranged parallel to each other and eachpivoted at one end and arranged to engage and urge the fabric passingover the front feed roll toward the fabric passing over the rear feedroll to deflect the material toward said guide, said rods beingadjustable to vary the feed of the fabric. r

11. A machine for cutting bias pieces from tubular fabrics, comprisingfront and rear feed rolls for threadedly receiving the fabric, a knifefor cutting said bias pieces from the advancing edge thereof, a guidefor the fabric, two rods each pivoted at one end and arranged to engageand urge the fabric passing over the front feed roll toward the fabricpassing over the rear feed roll to deflect the material toward saidguide, and a bar located between said two rods and arranged to push thefabric for the purpose set forth.

12. A machine for cutting bias pieces from tubular fabrics, comprisingfront and rear feed rolls for threadedly receiving the fabric, a knifefor cutting said bias pieces from the advancing edge thereof, a guidefor the fabric, two rods each pivoted at one end and arranged to engageand urge the fabric passing over the front feed roll toward the fabricpassing over the rear feed roll to deflect the material toward saidguide, and a bar located adjacent said rods and arranged to push thefabric for the purpose set forth, said bar being arranged obliquely tosaid rods.

13. A machine for cutting bias pieces from tubular fabrics, comprisingfront and rear feed rolls for threadedly receiving the fabric, a knifefor cutting said bias pieces from the advancing edge thereof, and aguide for the fabric, said guide having two sets of bars over andbeneath which the fabric passes,

the periphery of the bar nearest to the knife being roughened.

STEPHEN- ANDRE BRANDON.

